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Ancestry.co.uk have been busy expanding their collection of military databases. We all know Ancestry is the place to go for First World War service records, but they have also added records from a couple of possibly overlooked conflicts.

UK, Waterloo Medal Roll, 1815 – contains details of approximately 39,000 men who fought at the Battle of Waterloo, and a couple of earlier actions. The details for each man are pretty basic, but they may point the way to other avenues of research. These records were original published by The Naval & Military Press, but originate from The National Archives (MINT 16/112).

UK, Casualties of the Boer War, 1899-1902 – contains details of 55,000 British and colonial soldiers who were killed (including one by crocodile), wounded, captured, or who died of disease during the Second Boer War. This includes more than 20,000 men who died, and 23,000 who were injured. Like the Waterloo Medal Roll the details for each man is pretty basic, it is just an index after all. Again this collection comes from The Naval & Military Press.

As I understand it, you will not find service records for the 20,000 men who died in the Chelsea Pensioners British Army service records over at findmypast.co.uk (because they didn’t survive to receive a pension), so this collection is a useful alternative.

Back on more familiar ground, they have also added another database to those already available for the First World War.

Gateshead, Durham, England, Roll of Honour, 1914-1920 – whereas the two previous collections are indexes, this collection contains many photos. This Roll of Honour is a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings from the Gateshead area, featuring more than 4,000 men. If you have Gateshead ancestors you might be lucky to find them mentioned, and not just because they had been killed or wounded. This collection was indexed by the Ancestry World Archives Project, and the original scrapbook comes from the Gateshead Libraries and Arts Department.